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Born in the city of Durban, South Africa Robin Thirdfloor fuses mellow alternative beats with his jovial energetic flows which include the uses of both English and his native tongue isiZulu. He recently released a music video from the single “Confessions” taken from his “Sounds Empty Pockets Make” EP, you can watch it here.

For more information you can follow him on twitter @robinthirdfloor and also like his facebook page Robin Thirdfloor

Dennis “D-Man” Nhlapo , an artist from a small town called Balfour .has just completed his Ep “Blue September” which is planned to be dropped at the end of this Month.

He recently released his 2nd single from the Ep. The name of
the track is “Freedom” which features Philsner and was released on the
11th of February 2015. Its a song that speaks to the youth and they are planning on
shooting a video for the track.

After many years of listening to local underground artists such as Mr Douw, Rheebongs, Buntu Jobela, Vegita, Dangatye, Simphiwe Kasi Rap, King K Bone, Catalyst, Simbone, Dj Gibbz, Earl and Agemi etc… I’ve noticed that most artists get a large fanbase in their respective townships and think that they’ve made it, whilst they’ve not.

So in this article I just want to pin point the mistakes that artists make, the ones that make them not to SELL or Break into the mainstream industry.

The road to stardom is long, filled with potholes. Things are all fun and games when you’re practicing in a garage and doing tiny gigs…. but if your career starts to take off, you need to watch out!

1 – Skipping Gigs

Last year I organised an event in my hometown and tried to invite local acts from surrounding towns, but the guys from that town didn’t pitch for the event, even after paying them upfront.

So do you want to propel your career in the music business? Become known among promoters as a flaky act. Miss more than a couple gigs without literal acts of god as an excuse, and you’re likely to get blacklisted among any decent gigs in your area.

Professionalism on the business side is probably the single MOST important skill for an act to cultivate. Whatever else happens, the show must go on.

2 – Feuds with other Artists

Now, there are feuds and there are “feuds”, If you wanna do the pro – wrestling thing and have some good-natured trash-talk on Twitter like Cassper Nyovest and AKA, that’s one thing. However, never let it become, and be willing to apologise first if feelings get hurt.

By and large, you’ll get much further in the business making friends with other artists rather than making enemies.

3 – Staying At Home

Don’t think for a moment that because you’ve got a couple of downloads on the internet means that live shows are a thing of the past. If anything, demand is only going to grow for live music specifically because pre-packaged stuff is easily-available. Plus, most of the most profitable artists in history are known far more for their live shows than their albums e.g. Lecrae (Two time Grammy winner)

So in closing, What are some of the biggest mistakes you’ve seen a hot new artist make? Let us discuss this on this thread and try to help our artists make informed decisions when it comes to their music career.

The BET 2014 Hip Hop Awards took place on Tuesday night, there were a lot of festivities, starting from T.I’s performance to Drake being the biggest winner of the night, and of course the most anticipated cyphers from various rappers and battle rappers such as, Wiz Khalifa with his Taylor Gang, Smack with his URL battle rappers, David Banner and crew, Dee-1, Lil Mama, and many more… You can watch the cypher videos below…